Interesting anecdote: up until WWII or so, American commanders had little problem dealing with enemy noncombatants on the battlefield. There was a brief trial followed by an execution.
Over time, the whole trial and such got to be counter-productive for the military, all that publicity and such. Warfare became much more a PR game. So commanders started emphasizing killing over capturing.
This trend has nothing to do with the war on terror. Eisenhower back in WWII sent out memos to his commanders saying he didn't want to see a lot of snipers being captured. The implications were pretty clear. Drone warfare is just the continuation of this larger trend.
American commanders had little problem dealing with enemy noncombatants on the battlefield.
Did you mean combatants? Typically noncombatants would refer to medical personnel, chaplains, etc. It'd be interesting to know if people like this were routinely tried and executed.
I suspect he means "spies and saboteurs" (to borrow the language of geneva), i.e. combatants who don't display a distinctive sign recognizable at a distance and openly carry weapons.
(The rationale: if one army can't tell the difference between civilians and soldiers, it puts civilians at greater risk. Thus, Geneva creates an incentive for not doing this.)
Though the Geneva Conventions do not state whether chaplains may bear arms, they specify (Protocol I, 8 June 1977, Art 43.2) that chaplains are noncombatants. In recent years both the UK and US have required chaplains, but not medical personnel, to be unarmed. Other nations, notably Norway, Denmark and Sweden, make it an issue of individual conscience. Captured chaplains are not considered Prisoners of War (Third Convention, 12 August 1949, Chapter IV Art 33) and must be returned to their home nation unless retained to minister to prisoners of war.
Over time, the whole trial and such got to be counter-productive for the military, all that publicity and such. Warfare became much more a PR game. So commanders started emphasizing killing over capturing.
This trend has nothing to do with the war on terror. Eisenhower back in WWII sent out memos to his commanders saying he didn't want to see a lot of snipers being captured. The implications were pretty clear. Drone warfare is just the continuation of this larger trend.